5/17/2016

Any time Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal team up on a project, you can expect it to be intense, timely, and controversial. The duo behind The Hurt Lockerand Zero Dark Thirtyare gearing up for their next project, which doesn't have a title but it does have a star now inGame of Thrones actress, Hannah Murray.

Murray is taking a key role in Bigelow's film about the 1967 Detroit Riots, a racially-charged 5-day altercation that shook the city to its core. It began with a simple raid of an unlicensed bar and escalated into a deadly conflict. Given all that is going on with Detroit right now, expect this one to be a hot-button project.

While she isn't one of the major stars of HBO's Game of Thrones, Murray, who plays Sam's lover Gilly on the series, is establishing herself outside of it. She was terrific a couple of years ago in God Help the Girl, a musical from Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch. It turned me into a fan of hers and I look forward to seeing what she can do in her biggest film to date.

The hope is for Bigelow to start filming this summer for a 2017 release, which would mark the Riots' 50th anniversary. Sounds about right. [TheWrap]